Moral Foundations Test Results: Five vs Six Foundations

Where can I take a moral foundations questionnaire?

The Moral Foundations Theory website directs readers to YourMorals, the research collaboration’s participant site. Visit its current study menu and read the registration and participation information before choosing a questionnaire. Availability and the offered instrument may change; save its exact name with your result. This page is an independent reading guide, not a questionnaire, an official report or a copy of the research team’s items.

Why do some reports have five foundations and others six?

The older MFQ-30 uses five foundations: Care, Fairness, Loyalty, Authority and Purity. The revised MFQ-2 distinguishes Equality and Proportionality in place of the older Fairness foundation, retaining the other four. Do not compare the number of bars alone: a different six-scale online quiz might include Liberty instead. Record the named instrument, edition and scale labels before comparing screenshots.

What do the six MFQ-2 foundations mean?

In plain language, Care concerns suffering and nurturance; Equality concerns equal treatment and outcomes; Proportionality concerns rewards related to contribution or merit. Loyalty concerns commitment to one’s group; Authority concerns hierarchy, leadership and traditions; Purity concerns sacredness, contamination and ideals of living. These are descriptions of concerns people may use in moral judgment. They are not instructions about which concerns you ought to endorse.

Equality and Proportionality are not simple opposites

You can care about both reducing unequal outcomes and recognizing effort. Consider an original example: a club divides a limited training budget. One person wants every member to receive the same support; another wants extra support for members who contributed more volunteer time. You might support equal basic access plus a contribution-based bonus. This illustrates a possible trade-off, not an MFQ item or a scoring rule. Ask which principle you used and what facts would change your decision.

How should I read the numbers?

First identify whether the report shows a scale average, a transformed range or a comparison with other respondents. An invented 80 on a 0–100 display does not by itself mean “more caring than 80% of people.” A percentile requires a specified comparison sample. Do not add the foundations into a moral-worth total. Write down what each score measures, its possible range and any reference group before ranking your own bars.

What does the research support, and where are the limits?

MFQ-2 has published development and validation research. A replication in U.K. and U.S. samples broadly supported the six-foundation structure but found that Loyalty was better represented by separate group and country factors. Such findings concern particular instruments and samples; they do not validate every quiz using the same vocabulary, certify an individual’s character or show that a web score predicts behavior in a particular situation.

Use a profile to improve a conversation

Choose a recent disagreement and describe the practical outcome each person wanted. Then ask whether different moral concerns might explain part of the disagreement, while leaving room for different facts, interests or experiences. Invite the other person’s account rather than assigning them a foundation from their politics. This is our suggested reflection exercise, not part of the questionnaire. A useful conversation can end with a clearer disagreement instead of a shared label.

FAQ: Is a high score better than a low score?

No single foundation score is a grade in goodness. The theory describes moral concerns rather than providing a complete ethical rulebook. Look for specific examples and counterexamples in your life. A result is a starting point for asking what you prioritize; it does not excuse conduct, settle an ethical dispute or establish that another person lacks morals.

FAQ: Can this identify my politics or convert my 12 axes result?

No supported individual conversion is provided here. Moral concerns, policy preferences and personality traits answer different questions. Two people can appeal to care while supporting different policies because they expect different consequences. Keep your original moral profile beside your political-topic profile and compare your explanations in words, not by translating percentages or assigning a party.

FAQ: Can I compare a five-foundation result with MFQ-2?

Keep each result attached to its own version. Do not split an old Fairness score into Equality and Proportionality, or merge those two numbers and call the result the older scale. Changed questions and scoring can affect differences. For a retake, use the same instrument and language, record the date, and consider context before concluding that your values have changed.

Explore the twelve axes